Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Radio announcing

I sometimes think of myself as a Sports Bear: I go into sports hibernation after the end of football season. The NFL post season has not really interested me all that much this year, but I did attempt to listen to some of the Vikings/Saints NFC championship game on the radio.

I've studied or worked in radio for some time. Perhaps I listen to too much of the radio medium from the Golden Age of Radio, as I collect old time radio shows as a hobby. Call me old school, but I hate radio sports announcers that feel the need to yell, hoot, and holler on every single play.

I'm not saying they should announce or commentate in a monotone the entire game, but listening to the Vikings/Saints game grew tiresome. Announcers just don't need to be acting like its the final do or die field goal attempt in overtime when its a 1 and 10 incomplete pass in the middle of the 1st quarter.

I understand that TV (or perhaps TV-like Internet) and not Radio is the major communication medium nowadays. But, for the love of Lindsey Nelson, is it too much to ask that announcers announce with a level of professional distance? Every single play is not a big play.

Perhaps we live in a sports and entertainment culture nowadays where people have to have adrenaline-driven play-by-play all the time or else they can't get into the game. Perhaps, also, we live in a time where there is no such thing anymore as professional distance, what with Facebook, Twitter, texting, and all that other instant communication that can be extremely in-your-face passive aggressive.

To me, there is a difference, however, between a radio announcer and a screaming drunk at a sports bar.